by Pete Bodo
It's that time of year when those of us who labor in the trenches at Tennis magazine and Tennis.com begin to throw nervous glances at each other, or ask in semi-panicked tones, Oh garsh, what are we gonna write about today? So, when it comes to this length-of-season debate, count me among those who wish there were no off-season. . . at all!
Yep, make it Groundhog Day), ad infinitum. Right now, I could be writing about the semis of an ATP or WTA event being played at Krakatoa east of Java. Or on Mindanao. Instead, I'm going to write about. . . Margaret Court. Just kidding. I wouldn't touch that one with a 10-foot pole, or even a 5-footer, like Roman Polanski.
Spoiled, Me?
Gold coast cops may think they have a spoiled-rotten and quite likely dangerous young tennis player on their hands, but Bernard Tomic says that the only problem is that one of the local cops has it in for him. The controversy is over the way Tomic drives his M3 BMW sports car to and from training and "other activities directly related to his tennis."
That last bit is in quotes because, as a promising tennis prodigy, Tomic apparently has certain privileges that aren't available to ordinary schmoes — like his "exemption" to drive his insanely hot, high-performance BMW to and from "work" despite the fact that he's just 19 years old and thus has a restricted "P" plate — which ordinarily wouldn't allow him to pilot such a vehicle.
Who knew? And here I thought tennis prodigies were lucky to get all those free racquets and tennis shoes.
Now Queensland police are saying they're investigating a number of alleged traffic violations and breaches of Tomic's exemption, and Tomic says he's being singled out by one disgruntled officer.
I hope they take that car (or that exemption) away before the kid kills himself, or somebody else.
!PicWhy Didn't I Think of That Before!
The usual spate of off-season hirings and firings have re-united Svetlana Kuznetsova and Olga Morozova, and coughed up a new alliance between mercurial and wildly inconsistent Daniela Hantuchova and the well-traveled if always under the radar former Italian ATP pro, Claudio Pistolesi. You can read the details here.
It strikes me that Kuznetsova has run out of options, and knows deep down that there's no magic bullet out there for her, short of her own willingness and determination to do better. As for Hantuchova, according to our Matt Cronin, she told the Slovak News Agency, "He (Pistolesi) wants me to play at the net more often, which was one of my goals for a long time already, but I didn't do it too much in past."
You might have thought someone had floated that idea to the 28-year old Hantuchova already, given that "play at the net" is a fairly common strategy in tennis. But it's never too late to start learning, right?
More Controversy from Argendramatina. . .
You have to wonder, when was the last time both captains in a Davis Cup final ended up out of a job, either by choice or edict, a week or two after the end of the tie?
That's the case this year, as Tito Vazquez of the baby-blue-and-white was fired just days after Argentina lost to Spain, and Albert Costa stepped down just days ago, despite having led the team to two championships in his three years at the helm. He will now become the co-ordinator of the Spanish Federation's national teams, whatever the hail that means. It almost sounds like in this era of Spanish superiority, the federation-connected honchos are going to take turns with the captaincy, the way schoolkids might take turns playing with a particularly bewitching toy.
Things are a little different down on the Pampas, as in bitter and acrimonious. Vazquez has rekindled the theory that David Nalbandian is a disruptive force on the team. It's hard to resist the rumor that Nalbandian was instrumental in the firing of Vazquez, given that for years now the Davis Cup squad has been described as being Nalbandian's team. But it was just that leadership — more accurately, the lack thereof — mocked and criticized by Vazquez.
The unusually frank and contemptuous comments by Vazquez make you wonder if Nalbandian was totally on board with Vazquez's decision to keep Nalbandian out of the singles lineup for day 1, a tactical move the former captain theoretically made in order to keep Nalbandian fresh for a must-win doubles and a potential Cup-clinching singles turn on the final day. It was a controversial but interesting and not illogical move, but in light of subsequent events you have to wonder how Nalbandian felt about that. And you also have to wonder if personal animosity between player and coach didn't play a role in Vazquez relegating Nalbandian to the bench on day 1.
Whatever the truth, it seems like politics as usual along the Rio Planta. And if losing in Spain on red clay to a team led by Rafael Nadal is a mistake that warrants firing, then losing to Spain at home on hard courts without Nadal taking part had to have been a hanging offense.
Which begs the question, anyone seen Alberto Mancini lately?
The Wizard of Twickenham?
When I first saw the simple headline that All-England Club chief executive Ian Ritchie is leaving Wimbledon to take over at Twickenham, I thought they must be talking about a British theme park, something related to the still flourishing Harry Potter industry. But it turns out that in the UK, Twickenham means "rugby" in roughly the same way that "Wimbledon" means tennis. There's probably a clinical term for this urge to apply place names to sports in Britain.
In any event, Ritchie plans to have an explosive effect on Twickenham (headquarters of the Rugby Union and home to the fifth-largest stadium in Europe and the largest rugby stadium on the planet -capacity 82,000), which is appropriate given that in the 18th century the town of Twickenham once was a hotbed of gunpowder production, and all the attendant accidental explosions and deaths that came with the industry.
All in all, this is much more interesting news for rugby than tennis fans, because of Wimbledon's lengthy — actually, uninterrupted — history as a remarkable well-run place. It's easy to get snotty about all those old white dudes running around in their purple-and-green club AEC club ties, but they may not give a CEO very much room to stretch his wings. By contrast, Rugby Football Union appears to be a mess, and Ritchie will have to scramble to sort things out by the time the UK hosts the RFU World Cup in 2015.
Bored of Directors. . .
Blasting your way past Pete Sampras to win Wimbledon appears to be an easier job than blowing by the board-of-directors of the ATP Tour with the intention of becoming the new CEO of the organization. That's what former Wimbledon champ Richard Krajicek of Holland learned recently, anyway. He withdrew his name for consideration as ATP CEO because he was good at reading the tea leaves. They told him he didn't have adequate support from the current board members.
The lack of confidence in Krajicek, the 1996 Wimbledon champ, is thought to be the result of his role as the tournament director at Rotterdam, the big indoor event that takes place in February. I take this as another sign that the players are telling their board (the only "players" actually on the board are two of the three player representatives, former pros Justin Gimelstob and Brad Drewett) that they want a "player's guy" rather than a "tournament guy" to run the show when current CEO Adam Helfant steps down at the end of his three year contract in a few weeks time.
I don't know much about Krajicek's business acumen or track record, but his past as a top player makes me think that he was more likely to be, or become, a "player's guy" than whomever else the board ultimately tries to promote.